See the Giant Collection
of Company Promotional Merchandise Web links at Group29! As detailed below, for some bizarre reason these things fascinate me!

All businesses have a need to promote themselves. They
typically turn to a promotional/advertising company to create brand awareness.
This involves designing a company logo and slogan. The next step is to get that
brand in front of customers. Corporate Logo branded items are fascinating. They
represent the company when the sales and marketing folks are long gone.

The promotional items are usually given away by the company
as Vendor/Customer Gifts, Employee Recognition/Awards, Executive Gifts and Trade
Show/Event Giveaways. You can gauge the growth potential of a company by the
quality of items available for customers. Relatively cheap companies will give
coffee mugs and pens to their favored customers. Free spending large growth
companies will give away pricier gifts, like logowear jackets, and executive desk sets.
Employees too benefit from generous marketing programs. They will get shirts and
toys for participating in incentive programs.

In their book, Clicks and Mortar: Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World
by David S. Pottruck and Terry Pearce, they explain the need for logowear for employees.

Many of our best business scholars, including Peter Drucker, have commented on the growing need for community and the possibilities for creating that community in a business organization. After all, this is where people are spending more and more of their time. What better place for them to find their community, their "common unity"?

This need for community explains the phenomenon of logowear—employees' actually wearing shirts, caps, jackets and other apparel that shows the company logo. It is a sign of belonging, a symbol to the outside world that you are part of something bigger than yourself. Wearing a company shirt is the equivalent of flying the flag. If the culture of the company is one that is admired in the community, then the incentive to be identified with it is even stronger. Such is the case with great companies.

At one time, I worked at a company that fell into the cheap
category, and held its few promotional goodies for upper management. You
couldn’t even buy them if you had the money. It was the rare trade show where I
could pick up some really good swag. Some of the best stuff has come from the
Microsoft Launch events. Later in my career, I needed some
promotional items from a vendor, and had to work for days just to figure out how
to order. The revalation for how cool these "E Company Stores" were
came to me at a time when a major client project came to an end, and I
wanted to reward the team members. So I purchased items from the company's
Intranet web site (ING). Since then, I have used customer company web
sites to purchase items for team members.

These days, most successful companies fund a company store on
line to enable employees, vendors, and sales professionals to purchase items for
personal use or for promotions. This has been one of the beneficial side effects
of the dot com boom. While many online retailing companies flopped, large
companies set up their own web stores, just to ease the burden of managing
promotions and goods. I have attempted to collect and link to many of these
sites, including more than 100 of the Fortune 500 companies as of this
writing.

Every company goes about setting up their online store a
different way. And there are many different advertising and consulting companies
handling design and checkout of these stores. Most are not readily available on
the Internet. They are only available to employees on the company Intranet.

Here are the typical types of promotional gifts and
merchandise that companies carry:
Clothing, Apparel, Wearables, Wear: Most companies have at
least a polo shirt with the company logo for "Casual Fridays." Shirts are
typically the standard uniform for customer visits or trade shows. Other items
are usually given to employees for good behavior.

Accessories: Most of the accessories are given away as gifts
to employees or customers. They are typically something they might use in day to
day activities or keep on their desks at work.

Calendars, Diaries, Journals, Logbooks, Planners

Desktop & Office Items

key chains/Tags

Pens/Writing Instruments

Stationery

Watches /timepieces /Clocks

Badge Holders

Toys: Toys are a niche item. Not every business lends itself
to advertising on Toys or collectables. And not everyone appreciates them (I do
though!). Businesses that run on fleet vehicles are well served to advertise on
toy fleet replicas. Novelty gifts like stress balls, or Rubik's cubes usually
get a workout when employees meet in cubicles or small offices.

Novelty Items,

Models,

Die Cast Trucks and Planes,

Games,

Plush

Collectibles/Collectors items

Travel & Leisure: Road warriors typically appreciate
this type of stuff. Otherwise it just sits on your desk to remind you
that you never go anywhere.

Totes, Bags, Briefcases

Sporting Goods/Sports Recreation gear

Tailgating must-haves

Movies/Videos

Golf Accessories

Drinkware/Beverage: Everybody drinks liquids every
day. Why not outfit them with a vessel to contain the beverage of their
choice. Plasticware makes a good holder for the "hydraters" in your group.
The old standby 8 oz coffee mug will usually end up in the Goodwill pile or at
the family vacation home.

Steins,

Table ware,

Glassware,

mugs,

cups

Computer and Telecom Accessories: These are the hot ticket
now. Everybody uses computers. The USB memory stick is probably the best piece
of swag, now that diskette drives are gone by the wayside.

USB key Memory sticks,

USB Hubs/lights

Cases

Cords

Art: Some companies use poster advertising heavily,
like travel agencies. Also in this category are the motivational posters that
have crept into corporate culture

Posters

Advertising

Prints

Garage Gear: Heavy manufacturing companies, or those with a
large male customer base do well with mechanical stamped gifts. Knives are cool,
but in my family it is bad luck to give or recieve a knife as a gift.

Tools

Flashlights

Carryalls

Sports/Racing Promotions: There are currently 38 different
corporations that sponsor the NASCAR stock car series, as well as many more
sponsoring trucks or other racing. Racing promotional material is now hot
all accross the country. Other companies are sponsoring professional sports, or
college bowl games.